The Bismarck Survivor

Chapter 4 - Health and Safety Concerns.

Bismarck sat vacant in her office, a nice cup of coffee slowly departing from her lips. Setting it down on the coaster next to a stack of papers she sighed, settling her back down in the chair she had been sitting on.

Inside the office it was fairly well decorated. Many Ironblood flags, around 6, were draped pretty much on every wall with an overall red and black aesthetic to the room complimenting it. The rug had the classic insignia on it, the windows had a red hue to them, hell there was even a black piano in the corner of the room she never played- ever.

A call came onto her phone in the upper right of her desk. She reached over to it and picked it up, bringing it up to her ear.

"KMS Bismarck speaking. To who is addressing me...?"

There was a moment of silence as whoever was on the other line spoke. Bismarck sighed and nodded.

"Understood." Bismarck slipped the phone back to which it came and let out a large sigh, moving some hair from out of her face.

"If we've lost another commander, I swear to fucking God..." She pinched her nose in genuine and pure annoyance.

——

Karl finally awoke, finding himself clinging onto what he guessed was one of the flaps of his He-111 that had just crashed only maybe minutes before. He was adrift in the open ocean, nothing noticeable but the floating rubble of the plane and the pure blue waters that had surrounded him. His legs floated somewhat comfortably, his pants long torn off to show only his white boxers. His upper jacket and uniform was torn to near shreds, bits of his white undershirt and even chest and stomach showing behind his destroyed blue uniform. On top of all of this he was very bruised and bloody, a large cut going up from his jaw to his eyes on his right side. A deep cut which still seeped blood. His right eye as well felt swollen, probably blackened.

He looked over to his left, trying his best not to move in general. There was the tail end of the He-111 floating there, surrounded by oil. There was a few numbers on the tail which he couldn't read from the distance he was at. Karl let out a sigh and groaned as he lifted his leg upwards and onto the flap itself, using the plane part as a proper form of some sort of flotation device. Karl seriously was left to wonder if he would survive- he was lord knows how many miles outwards from land and from what he knew no one had called for help. Christ - what a way to go. He was unsure if it'd be heatstroke, thirst, or sharks that would kill the man first.

And speak of the fucking Devil. Maybe 50 or so yards out a small fin slowly broke above the waves, leaving ripples in its wake. The fin of that of a shark, though he couldn't be sure what kind. Karl instinctively went for his pistol but of course, he didn't have one. It was probably leagues under the sea and was never going to be seen again.

The fin began to circle his location, a black mass accompanied it underneath. Karl was forced to just sit and stare as the mass slowly got closer and closer as it circled. Around 20 yards or so away the fin suddenly slipped under the water, the black mass going down with it. Though Karl didn't dare let out a sigh of relief, as he assumed it wasn't over yet.

And it wasn't. The flap he was on suddenly bumped, not very aggressively mind you. Just as if it had been lightly tapped by someone of considerable size. Karl, knowing this was the shark, let his heart drop into his stomach as he immediately sat up, clinging tightly to the debris. This caused the flap he was hanging on to move more, splashing a bit in the water.

A massive pair of jaws from that of a bull shark plunged out of the water and bit down on the end of the flap, shaking it violently and rocking Karl almost off, forcing him to cling onto the end as his legs slipped into the water. The shark continued to swim forward as it held onto the flap, tearing bits of it off as its teeth dig deep into the metal. It then let go after taking off a massive amount of paint and material, leaving Karl in a shocked and daze state. The tail of the shark bumped the flap as it circled back around to strike again.